July 26, 2018

Stunner -- fake racist claim right here in West Texas

These days whenever we see or hear a news item in which one individual describes some act of racism it's probably a prudent approach to give it at least a 50% chance of being fake.

But it's probably hard for a reporter to put that principle in effect when he is staring at a super salacious story about racism.

That's what happened in our neighbor city of Odessa, TX, the other day. You've probably heard the story. First, a waiter claimed that a customer wrote a racist note on a receipt. Here's the Odessa American's first report complete with a glowing portrayal of the claimant: Racist receipt at restaurant condemned.

It took the restaurant owner's own investigators to do the fact checking -- the note was faked. But let's give credit to the Odessa American for reporting that important narrative breaker a week later in Saltgrass COO, waiter say racism story made up. Oops.